President Cyril Ramaphosa continues to defy the interests of black people. The so called Presidential Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture (Advisory Land Panel) has finally issued its report. The panelists were carefully selected amongst a pool of commentators and academics whose opposition to land expropriation without compensation (LEWC) is not a secret. The outcomes of the report were predetermined.

Ramaphosa is doing everything to avoid the expropriation of the land of white farmers. This is not surprising because land thieves are some of the biggest contributors to his campaign which ensured that he could buy the presidency of the country. Tony Leon has revealed that at least one land thief donated R30 million to Ramaphosa’s presidency campaign to stop LEWC.

Ramaphosa raised over R400 million from land thieves which enabled him to buy the ANC Nasrec conference. His presidency was thus secured through a very corrupt process and he’s now working to please his funders.

The Advisory Land Panel report is part of a number of parallel processes, all aimed at confusing the landless. There is the committee set up by the Minister for the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform to persue the LEWC parliamentary process. There is also an expropriation bill which was already secretly announced during the holiday season last December. Then there is this Advisory Land Panel report.

Black First Land First (BLF) rejects the Advisory Land Panel report with the contempt it deserves. The panel recommends expropriation of useless land and empty buildings in the city. This is an insult to black people. As if that is not enough, the panel decides to recommend the expropriation of the Ingonyama Trust. This shows how anti black the panel is.

The land question is a serious matter. Around 35 000 white families own up to 80% of the total land in this country. Blacks remain landless and poverty stricken 25 years after so called democracy. The panel’s recommendations will ensure that no change happens.

BLF further warns the landless that the top three parties in parliament are in the pockets of white monopoly capital (WMC). This means that there shall be no LEWC via the current parliament.

The Advisory Land Panel report is an insult to the memory of Chris Hani, who warned about the CODESA sell out settlement. Here’s Chris Hani speaking Land or death!

“I didn’t go to prison, I wasn’t jumping around on the streets, I was in the forefront of the MK soldiers. I was one of the first to cross the Zambezi River, I saw the blood of our people flowing like a river, my people didn’t die fighting for the freedom of movement but they died fighting for land, so therefore I cannot let their blood go in vain by signing this document. I will not sign this until you return our land!!”.

That’s what he said when he walked out of CODESA while Ramaphosa was happy to sign the document.

BLF will call a Land Imbizo with organizations of the landless to chart a way forward including planning for mass land occupations.

Issued by Black First Land First, National Coordinating Committee of (BLF NCC)
29 July 2019

Contact Details

Black First Land First Mail: [email protected]

Zanele Lwana
(BLF Deputy President)
Cell: +27 79 986 7225